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Advocates in Sarnia calling for ban on asbestos use in Canada

Changes Health Canada has made to how the federal department's website describes the health risks of asbestos are being welcomed in Sarnia, a community hit hard by occupational diseases, including mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

But, community leaders and advocates for victims of industrial disease say they still want a total ban on the use of asbestos in Canada, and one long-time advocate said he believes Health Canada owes Canadians an apology.

"For decades, we've been advocating that Health Canada follow what essentially has been the scientific consensus everywhere in the world, except in those countries that were producing and exporting asbestos, like Canada," said Jim Brophy, formerly of Sarnia's Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers, and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Windsor.

"What I really think what Health Canada should be doing is issuing an apology to the Canadian public for failing to enact public health policies that would have protected thousands and thousands of workers and their families."

The Globe and Mail reported this week that Health Canada recently updated its website page on the health risk of asbestos.

The page previously said, "When inhaled in significant quantities, asbestos fibres can cause asbestosis (a scaring of the lungs which makes breathing difficult), mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the lining of the chest or abdominal cavity) and lung cancer."

The page now says, "Asbestosis, if inhaled, can cause cancer and other diseases," eliminating the qualifying "significant quantities" reference.

The page also no longer makes a distinction between types of asbestos. It previously said chrysotile asbestos, the type that had been mined in Quebec, is "less potent" and does less damage.

Sarnia, where asbestos was widely used in the region's industries, and where workers carried asbestos fibres into their homes on their work clothes, remains "ground zero" for mesothelioma, Brophy said.

According to the Ontario Cancer Registry, the incident rate of mesothelioma among men in Lambton County between 2000 and 2009 was approximately five times the Ontario average.

"I think the credibility of Health Canada has been extremely low, in terms of the asbestos issue," Brophy said.

"Health Canada is just catching up to where most of the scientific literature, and the consensus on asbestos was in the 1990s."

It wasn't until 2012 that Ottawa said it was dropping its long-standing opposition to an international effort to list asbestos as a hazardous material, after the Quebec government said it was ending its financial support for a plan to reopen Canada's last asbestos mine there.

Instead of enacting policies to protect Canadians from asbestos, Brophy said Health Canada "abandoned science and public health, in order to support the asbestos industry and the federal government's policy."

Sandra Kinart's husband, Blayne, died a decade ago of mesothelioma and she is chairperson of Victims of Chemical Valley, a group of woman who have lost loved ones to industrial disease and have worked for years to support victims, and have pushed for a ban on asbestos.

Kinart said she was "more than pleased" with the changes on the Health Canada website, but added she considers it just a first step.

"I think it's about time that we are recognizing that this product does kill people, and it has no boundaries around who it takes."

Kinart said she hopes the federal government will now move to place a complete ban on the use of asbestos and not allow products containing it into the country.

"Those products still expose people and kill people," she said.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the changes by Health Canada on its website were "long overdue," and mark "a major shift in the government's position."

But, he also said there should be a ban on asbestos use in Canada.

"Car brakes still have asbestos in them," Bradley said. "Piping still has asbestos in it, in Ontario."

Mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest or abdominal cavity, usually takes many years to form and families in Sarnia continue to live with the results of workplace asbestos exposures that occurred decades ago.

"We've always been, sadly, more aware of it than any other community in Canada," Bradley said.